Time Out

POSTPONED – An Evening with Honeck & Mutter & Williams

POSTPONED – An Evening with Honeck & Mutter & Williams

Sat, Jun 13, 2020, 8:00pm

Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Heinz Hall

We are committed to the health and well-being of our staff, musicians, volunteers and patrons. In the best interests of all and using guidance from government and public health authorities regarding COVID-19, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is postponing this concert. We are working to reschedule this concert and encourages ticketholders to hold on to their tickets as it works on new dates. Learn more.

SOLD OUT!

Manfred Honeck welcomes legendary composer and conductor John Williams to join the orchestra at its one-night-only Special Concert with Anne-Sophie Mutter on June 13, 2020.

The Special Concert features violin virtuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Pittsburgh Symphony performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto under the baton of Honeck, then John Williams will take the podium to lead the orchestra and Mutter in works from “Across the Stars,” the highly-acclaimed recently released album collaboration by Williams and Mutter that includes many of his beloved movie themes in stunning adaptations written especially for Mutter.

John Williams has won five Oscars, four golden Globes, five Emmys and 24 GRAMMYs and has said that he revisited themes from many of his existing scores and completely transformed them. “Presented on the violin, they become a different emotional experience,” Williams said. He and Mutter, friends and collaborators, have described the newly arranged version of “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter films as “Harry Potter meets Paganini.”

In 2018, Mutter premiered Williams’ new arrangement of “Across the Stars” during Deutsche Gramophon’s 120-year anniversary gala concert in Berlin with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Music Director Manfred Honeck conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin. This is only the third time since the album was released that Mutter and Williams have appeared together in concert with an orchestra.

“I am looking forward to returning to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra—my favorite American orchestra—this June for a very special concert,” said Anne-Sophie Mutter. “It has been a lifelong dream for me to perform with John Williams and being able to do so in Pittsburgh and also celebrate Beethoven with Manfred Honeck and the orchestra is, indeed, a highlight of 2020. I can’t wait for it!”

Anne-Sophie Mutter

Manfred Honeck

conductor

Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world's leading conductors, whose unmistakable and trend-setting interpretations are receiving great international acclaim. For more than a decade, he has been Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where his contract will run until 2022. He and the orchestra are celebrated both in Pittsburgh and abroad. Guest appearances regularly include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as major European music cities and major festivals such as the BBC Proms, the Berlin Music Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Beethovenfest Bonn and the Grafenegg Festival. The close relationship with the Musikverein in Vienna will be continued in autumn 2019 as part of the next major tour of European cities

His successful work in Pittsburgh is extensively documented by numerous recordings for the label Reference Recordings. All SACDs featuring works by Strauss, Beethoven, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky and others have received a number of outstanding reviews and awards, including a number of Grammy nominations. The recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5 and Barber's Adagio won the GRAMMY for "Best Orchestral Performance" in 2018. Most recently, Bruckner's Symphony No. 9 was published in August 2019.

Born in Austria, he completed his musical education at the University of Music in Vienna. His many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have had a lasting influence on his work as a conductor. His art of interpretation is based on his determination to venture deep beneath the surface of the music. Manfred Honeck began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado in Vienna and as director of the Jeunesses Musicales Orchestra Vienna. He then became the first Kapellmeister to the Zurich Opera House, where he was awarded the European Conducting Prize in 1993. He has since served as one of the three principal conductors of the MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, as Musical Director of the Norwegian National Opera, as First Guest Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic, and Chief Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm.

From 2007 to 2011 Manfred Honeck was Music Director of the Stuttgart State Opera. There he conducted, among others, premieres of Berlioz ' Les Troyens , Mozart's Idomeneo, Verdi's Aida, Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites, Rosenkavalier by R. Strauss, the bat by Johann Strauss, and Wagner's Lohengrin and Parsifal. Performances in opera led him to the Semperoper Dresden, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg and the Salzburg Festival. In the Beethoven anniversary year 2020 he will take over the musical direction of the new staging of Fidelio in the version of 1806 at the Theater an der Wien. On the other side of the conductor's podium, Manfred Honeck has designed a series of symphonic suites based on scenic works, including Janáček's Jenůfa , Strauss' Elektra and Dvořák's Rusalka. These arrangements, all of which he recorded with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, are also performed regularly with orchestras around the world.

As a guest conductor, Manfred Honeck has been at the podium of all leading international orchestras, including the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Bamberger Symphoniker, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchester de Paris, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome and the Vienna Philharmonic; in the United States, he has directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony. He has also been Artistic Director of the International Wolfegger Concerts for twenty-five years. Manfred Honeck has been honored by several universities in the United States as an honorary doctorate. On behalf of the Austrian Federal President, he was honored in 2016 with the professional title Professor. The jury of the International Classical Music Awards awarded him "Artist of the Year" in 2018.

Season 2019/2020 (August 2019)

Changes or cuts for reproduction require coordination with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.Please do not use older material.

John Williams

conductor

In a career spanning more than five decades, John Williams has become one of America’s most accomplished and successful composers for film and for the concert stage. He has served as music director and laureate conductor of one of the country’s treasured musical institutions, the Boston Pops Orchestra, and he maintains thriving artistic relationships with many of the world’s great orchestras, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mr. Williams has received a variety of prestigious awards, including the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Olympic Order, and numerous Academy Awards, Grammy Awards, Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards. He remains one of our nation’s most distinguished and contributive musical voices.

Mr. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than one hundred films. His 45-year artistic partnership with director Steven Spielberg has resulted in many of Hollywood’s most acclaimed and successful films, including Schindler’s List, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones films, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Munich, Hook, Catch Me If You Can,Minority Report, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Empire of the Sun, The Adventures of TinTin, War Horse, The BFG and Lincoln. Their latest collaboration, The Post, was released in December of 2017. Mr. Williams composed the scores for all nine Star Wars films, the first three Harry Potter films, Superman, JFK, Born on the Fourth of July, Memoirs of a Geisha, Far and Away, The Accidental Tourist, Home Alone, Nixon, The Patriot, Angela’s Ashes, Seven Years in Tibet, The Witches of Eastwick, Rosewood, Sleepers, Sabrina, Presumed Innocent, The Cowboys, The Reivers and Goodbye, Mr. Chips among many others. He has worked with many legendary directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, William Wyler and Robert Altman. In 1971, he adapted the score for the film version of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he composed original violin cadenzas for renowned virtuoso Isaac Stern. He has appeared on recordings as pianist and conductor with Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Jessye Norman, and others. Mr. Williams has received five Academy Awards and fifty-one Oscar nominations, making him the Academy’s most-nominated living person and the second-most nominated person in the history of the Oscars. His most recent nomination was for the film Star War: The Last Jedi. He also has received seven British Academy Awards (BAFTA), twenty-four Grammys, four Golden Globes, five Emmys, and numerous gold and platinum records.

Born and raised in New York, Mr. Williams moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1948, where he studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, he returned to New York to attend the Juilliard School, where he studied piano with Madame Rosina Lhevinne. While in New York, he also worked as a jazz pianist in nightclubs. He returned to Los Angeles and began his career in the film industry, working with a number of accomplished composers including Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for more than 200 television films for the groundbreaking, early anthology series Alcoa Theatre, Kraft Television Theatre, Chrysler Theatre and Playhouse 90. His more recent contributions to television music include the well-known theme for NBC Nightly News (“The Mission”), the theme for what has become network television’s longest-running series, NBC’s Meet the Press, and a new theme for the prestigious PBS arts showcase Great Performances.

In addition to his activity in film and television, Mr. Williams has composed numerous works for the concert stage, among them two symphonies, and concertos for flute, violin, clarinet, viola, oboe and tuba. His cello concerto was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and premiered by Yo-Yo Ma at Tanglewood in 1994. Mr. Williams also has filled commissions by several of the world’s leading orchestras, including a bassoon concerto for the New York Philharmonic entitled “The Five Sacred Trees,” a trumpet concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra, and a horn concerto for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “Seven for Luck”, a seven-piece song cycle for soprano and orchestra based on the texts of former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove, was premiered by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in 1998. At the opening concert of their 2009/2010 season, James Levine led the Boston Symphony in the premiere Mr. Williams’ “On Willows and Birches,” a new concerto for harp and orchestra.

In January 1980, Mr. Williams was named nineteenth music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra, succeeding the legendary Arthur Fiedler. He currently holds the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor which he assumed following his retirement in December 1993, after fourteen highly successful seasons. He also holds the title of Artist-in-Residence at Tanglewood.

One of America’s best known and most distinctive artistic voices, Mr. Williams has composed music for many important cultural and commemorative events. “Liberty Fanfare” was composed for the rededication of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. “American Journey,” written to celebrate the new millennium and to accompany the retrospective film The Unfinished Journey by director Steven Spielberg, was premiered at the “America’s Millennium” concert in Washington, D.C. on New Year’s Eve, 1999. His orchestral work “Soundings” was performed at the celebratory opening of Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In the world of sport, he has contributed musical themes for the 1984, 1988, and 1996 Summer Olympic Games, the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, and the 1987 International Summer Games of the Special Olympics. In 2006, Mr. Williams composed the theme for NBC’s presentation of NFL Football.

Mr. Williams holds honorary degrees from twenty-two American universities, including Harvard University, The Juilliard School, Boston College, Northeastern University, Tufts University, Boston University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, The Eastman School of Music, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and the University of Southern California. He is a recipient of the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the highest award given to artists by the United States Government. In 2016, Mr. Williams received the 44th Life Achievement Award from the American Film Institute – the first composer in history to receive this honor. In 2003, he received the Olympic Order, the IOC’s highest honor, for his contributions to the Olympic movement. He served as the Grand Marshal of the 2004 Rose Parade in Pasadena, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in December of 2004. Mr. Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2009, and in January of that same year he composed and arranged “Air and Simple Gifts” especially for the first inaugural ceremony of President Barack Obama. In 2018, he received the Trustees Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.